Code of Life
by Juli4312
Summary: Thought to be dead, Julian lands in a new world... A nerd in a new world, what could possibly go wrong? A whole lot! Now, he needs to find his new place in this world while an unknown evil lurks around the corner!


A loud banging noise echoed throughout the small house. Fists on wood. It started from the creaky wooden door, flowing through the air past the messy kitchen. The sound forced its way over the worn wooden staircase and crept through a small crack in a old wooden door before spreading all over the room. Creeping over the books strewn all across the wooden floor…. 'Expert programming', 'C++ for experts' , 'How to make your computer do what you want: An elaborate guide'… A dimly lit screen of a pc reflected the few sunrays that fell through the dusty window, unhindered by the thick curtains hanging from the copper bar drilled into the ceiling. A black-haired boy grunted as a cold wind rolled over his face, tickling the beginnings of a beard. The boy shivered unconsciously, drooling on the keyboard connected to his pc. Several bangs on the door a floor down later, his body shuddered. His eyes lazily fluttered open before he lazily pushed himself up from his messy desk. Several sheets of paper, his smartphone and several pens crashed unto the ground while he tried to regain his bearings. He rubbed his temples and rubbed the drool off his face with the back of his hand as he slowly fell back in the comfortable chair he fell asleep in.

"Must've fallen asleep… Again… I really need to sleep properly next time…" The boy said to himself, knowing that next night, he will just fall asleep right on his desk once again. After rubbing his eyes, he pushed himself out of his chair. Stumbling on his blue-striped socks, the boy notices the banging on his door. He frowned, looking out of his window. Julian scratched his head as he didn't recognize the people bashing his door. He slapped himself on the cheek. Twice. Just to make sure that sleepy murk disappeared from his mind. He pushed open the window, and leaned over the street below him. It was so early that nearly no vehicles were on the cobblestone road. He heard some snickers from the people standing underneath him. One of them, a blonde man formed a cone with his hands and yelled loudly through it.

"Hey, Julian! Get your ass over here! We were going to for a walk in the city before our graduation, remember?!" He yelled. Julian hazily looked at the person who yelled his name before nodding slowly. He pushed the window shut before he walked into his dilapidated bathroom. It had a toilet, a shower and a washbasin. Julian didn't need anything more… One word kept ringing in his head. Graduation… There was something…Something up with that word but… And then, it finally clicked in his head! His graduation… was today! Today would mark the day he would enter the world as a full-fledged programmer! A small smile spread across Julian's face as he smeared some wax into his hair. When he was content with it, he ruffled through his hair once again before taking the steps down and stepping into his old shoes. They were ruffled along the edges, and the right one had no shoelaces anymore but Julian didn't care. They were comfortable, and that's all that mattered to him. He grabbed his coat, his back pack with his laptop and stepped out the door.

"Damn, the sun is bright today. I might melt at this rate…" Julian commented when he felt the warm sunrays on his face. Protecting his eyes with one hand, Julian locked the door behind him before turning to his few friends. Never had many, never wanted many.

"I knew you were still sleeping, Julian! Binge-watching series again?" The blonde man said as he threw an arm over Julian's shoulder. The black-haired boy grunted and shook his head, trying to have an air of dignity around him… As much as possible with drool-stains on your cheek and a sleepy gaze, of course.

"Ah, shut it, Tom… You know I am always working…" Julian lied. But his friends weren't buying it. A shirt, brown-haired boy adjusted his round glasses before sighing. The glassed boy grabbed a small notebook from his breast pocket, clicked open a ballpoint pen and began flipping through the pages.

"Yeah… Nice try. There is nothing to do, so do tell me what you were trying to… *ahem* work out?" The boy replied in a sarcastic tone that made Julian's eyes roll.

"Nothing gets past you, does it, Sven? Well, that is only natural for the top-student of the Judicial Studies!" I joked. Sven quickly slammed his booklet shut and shook his head. Julian knew how to strike where it hurt.

"I'll thank you to leave my scores out of this, thank you very much! Now, are we going or are we going to stand here and lose time? We need to be in the auditorium in 3 hours, and I do not want to be late, understood?" Sven announced, his steely gaze preening over the edge of his glasses. Both of us nodded before we walked down the lane. And soon, the three were in the awakening city centre. Tom announced he would get them something to eat and directly walked over to a patisserie. Julian rolled with his eyes. That man was following his nose, wherever he went. Well, he did finish his studies to become a chef so that should be expected… Ten minutes later, the three boys were sitting just behind the massive cathedral of the city, eating their doughnuts. While basking in the multi-coloured reflection of the glass panels covering the cathedral, they looked out over the massive central square. Some businessmen were already working tirelessly to set up their small shops for the day, while other people just sleepily walk to the coffee shop to get their first shot of the black liquid. Julian leaned back, calmly folding his hands behind his head while looking at the clear sky above him.

"What are you smiling about?" He heard Tom ask. Julian just shook his head, opening one eye to look at his blonde-haired friend.

"Oh, nothing. I am just happy we finally reached the end of our school days. You know… Gruelling days those were but… we made it eventually and here we are, standing on the brink of our own lives!" Julian smiled. The other two could only agree with that logic. They have fought hard to get where they are now and now… it was all over. Now, they could finally live for real! The three boys stared at the sky in silence before Tom suddenly jumped up, clapping in his hands. Julian, who was just beginning to sink in a peaceful slumber, shuddered and raised his right eye to look at his obviously excited friend.

"What the hell, Tom? Did you see another girl you want to talk to?" Tom groaned loudly, not wanting to think at that horrible day of the Prom… When he asked every girl he could think of…. And none wanted to go with him to the party.

"Ha, real funny, Julian! But I did it better than you, ladies wanted to talk to me! The only girls you talk to is in your simulators and your dreams!" Julian rolled with his eyes, ignoring this comment as he waited for Tom to continue.

"Jokes aside, what do you say we take a trip to the Chasm? Been a while since we have been there!" The blonde boy proposed. Julian rolled over and looked at Sven to his left. He shrugged and didn't seem to have any problem with it.

"Sure, why not? We need to take the underground trains to get there, so we should get a move on!" He said, pushing himself on his feet. He began flipping through his small notebook and using it as a guide, we soon stood right in front of the massive chasm just outside of the city. Julian looked down the endless black void stretching in front of him. The hole is said to be around 10 miles from side to side and no one knew why it was here, let alone how it was here in the first place. The only clue were the weird symbols inscribed on the weird metal at the edge of the chasm. Nobody knew what they meant, and they were the only symbols that looked like that known to man. The Chasm has sprouted several theories about its existence, ranging from aliens to government cover-ups to even being a pothole for Giants' golf… Julian sometimes wondered if those people were right in their heads sometimes… The climbing sun shone brightly above their heads, reflected from the metal strips lining the edge of the Chasm. Several streams of water cascaded down into the immeasurable darkness below. The water roared, splashing sometimes in Julian's face.

"Hey, should we do you-know-what?" Tom proposed. Sven turned towards him, shaking his head fervently.

"Hell no! We did that when we were kids, because we were light enough that the rocks could carry our weight! We are too heavy now!" But Tom just waved these concerns away and climbed over the guardrails. He grunted, holding himself tightly at the yellow-coloured, steel bars behind him to ensure he wouldn't fall. Julian gulped when seeing him like that.

"Come on, Julian! You really need to do this once before your graduation!" Tom said, extending a hand towards the black-haired boy. Julian gulped, seeing Sven's worried gaze. The black-haired boy adjusted his backpack, feeling his laptop wiggle slightly before he took a deep breath. Placing one foot on the steel rails, Julian swung his other foot over it. The rest of his body followed suit. His hands clawed at the railing, shivering before he tried calming himself. The boy really hated heights, and heights hated him. They always had a weird pull on him, making him afraid when he got too close. Like he was forced to jump in their deep embrace. Why did he do this himself? Julian groaned, almost feeling the colour drain out of his face. And to top it all off, the rain of the night before really did a number on these polished rocks. The water roared beside him as he tried to find footing underneath him. Tom nodded when he saw his friend standing still. He could hear Sven sighing before rubbing his eyes.

"You do know both of you could get into serious trouble if the police found you hanging out here?" He said, cleaning his glasses with the rim of his shirt. Tom scoffed. Rolling his eyes, he hoisted himself up and swung one leg over the guardrails again.

"Yeah, right! They are nowhere to be seen at this hour!" He yelled while slowly climbing up again. But Tom's words had a weird tendency to bite him in the ass… Not even ten seconds later, Julian could hear yelling from the other side of the Chasm. That sounded remarkably like… police!

"Hey, you ingrates! What do you think you are doing?! Get back up here this instant!" The voices came closer and closer while the agents continued yelling loudly. Tom quickly dropped himself on the ground, accompanied by a gaze from Sven that said "What did I say?" . However, Julian wasn't so lucky or agile. He shivered as he heard the police coming closer and closer, their voices echoing throughout his head. Sweat started to flow from his palms as his breath quickened. His gaze darted in all directions but up, more to that black hole underneath him than anything else. The voices of his friends, mingled with the shouts of the officers running towards them, slowly got drowned out in Julian's mind. Only silence remained as he felt his arms shivering and shaking. No matter how much he tried controlling his breath, Julian couldn't keep himself under control. He was hanging above a bottomless pit, officers above him and utter darkness below him. The sweat underneath his clenched hands started to make the steel bar very slippery.

"Julian, watch out!" Sven yelled loudly when he saw his black-haired friend's feet slip from the rocky surface. Some pebbles dropped, seemingly falling without any end to speak off. They soon disappeared into the void beneath the dangling Julian. Which amplified the fear ravaging his nerves even more! Julian, feeling his grip slowly loosening, heard nothing anymore. The watered-down noise of voices all around him, the roaring of the waterfall near him… Why did he let himself get roped into this again? … He grunted, feeling his grip slipping even more. He gasped as he only hung from the steel bar with one measly hand, and that hand was rapidly losing grip as well! His sweaty palms were really not doing him any favours. He grunted before throwing a weak, death stare to the people yelling at him. Then, in an instant, his hands completely slipped away and his body fell towards the black void, like a puppet that had its strings cut.

"Oh, Shi-!" That was the only thing that Julian could bring out before a thick feeling of fear and dread prevented him from ushering more words. His body began to pick up speed, faster and faster as the world around him began to become a blur. The small white/blueish dot in the distance would be where he came from… But it was so far away. And it continued on getting smaller and smaller until it disappeared. Julian groaned loudly, contemplating that last fatal choice he made while he crashed towards… nothing. The black void kept stretching in front of him, infinitely. He was sure he would be long dead by now. His fear had now disappeared as there was nothing to change about his fate now… Only falling until he met his maker…

"Not the most easy death… First falling for more than 10 minutes and I haven't reached the bottom yet…" Julian said in a weak voice as cold wind made his ears glow with pain. He hugged himself, trying to keep any warmth he might've left in a reflex. A bit weird for someone who was about to die… 5 Minutes passed… 10 more minutes… And all that time, Julian's body was accumulating more and more speed. The wind howled along his ears, nearly freezing them off as a small mist covered his entire body.

"Great. I'll go down as a frozen mummy…" Julian said to himself in a morbid tone. He always heard about people who were about to die that they became strangely calm once they had taken peace with their ends… Was this how it felt? , he thought to himself before he heard a weird voice, coming from behind him.

"Breaching Wall. Initiate Protocol." It was a mechanical voice, but it was so faint with the howling of the wind pushing all sounds past the boy, that Julian wasn't even sure he heard it. It also could be his mind playing the last tricks on him before it shut down. Just as Julian thought he was going to fall forever, a massive pressure crushed his body. He screamed in pain as the pressure increased even more. Julian was sure he could feel his bones creaking underneath the massive weight that was pressing on him from every direction imaginable.

"AAAAAGGGHHHH-" The air in his lungs was easily pushed out by the pressure, silencing him as he slowly drowned into a sea of unconsciousness, his body still crashing into the never-ending abyss below. Julian's body went limp as the last ounce of consciousness got forced out of his mind. The backpack he wore got ripped to shreds, revealing his pc behind him. The device got easily crushed but the parts continued their descent at Julian's side…

…

…

…

Freezing.

That was the first thing Julian felt when his consciousness emerged against from its slumber. Biting cold spreading all across his body. The front of his body felt mildly damp while the back of his body got plagued by frigid winds. The gusts howled loudly. The cold made sure Julian opened his eyes. He groaned loudly. Every fibre in his body hurt! Letting a pained grunt escape through his lips, Julian rolled over and stared at a cloudy dark sky, filled with three moons...Three… Moons.

"What did I have to snort t-to *shiver* be tripping balls so hard that I see three moons…?"

Julian scratched his head, feeling that frigid snow froze over part of his hair. Shouldn't have used that much wax, Julian thought to himself. Which made him think… He remembered falling through the Chasm… Then the darkness followed… A-And then…. Hmmm… Julian drew a blank after that. The only thing that served as a reminder of what happened to him were the remains of his backpack, limply swaying in the cold winds. The boy plucked the remains from his body and dropped them to the ground.

"D-Don't need those anymore…" He thought to himself before taking a look at his surroundings. Pine trees… Pine trees… Pine trees… Nothing else but trees! Julian scratched behind his ear, pulling his warm hood over his head. When he did that, he felt something cold brush up against his fingers when he tried rubbing in his right eye. He began poking at it, consistently feeling something metallic push back against his fingertips. It felt rectangular, cold and… somehow, very slick. But Julian couldn't see what it was, leaving it there for the moment. It wasn't really bothering him at the moment. The more pressing issue on his mind was his current location.

"Where the hell am I…? Is this Heaven…*shiver* Or Hell… Something else?" He mumbled to himself, slowly beginning to walk through the trees to find some cover from the relentless gust that tried to wriggle their way into his warm, cosy jacket. With each step, he felt something swaying at his left leg. At first, he thought his muscles had frozen over and he had to get his blood flowing again but after ten minutes of walking, he decided to take a closer look.

"Well … T-This is new!" Julian said, as loud as his frozen, purple lips would allow him. A small sword, slightly longer than a dagger dangled from his left hip. It was bound by a long leather belt around his waist, swaying slightly in the howling winds. It was small, not even longer than Julian's arms but it had a definitive weight to it… When Julian pulled it out of its sheath, he noticed the weird curves on the sword. You had the leather handle, then a metal bar perpendicular to that. And then, a bulge formed like an oversized egg with a hole in the middle. Layers of metal reached towards the middle of the hole, never reaching each other. After that, it was a strangely normal sword. The more Julian looked at the metal weapon, the more intrigued he got.

"I don't … remember… *shiver*… putting this… in my back pack!" Julian said to himself, sheathing the dagger-like sword again before continuing his nightly trek. He continued to walk in the same direction, snow quickly filling up the footsteps behind him. Only the sound of the wind accompanied him, along with an ever-growing feeling of his body freezing solid. He couldn't feel his lips and what he could make out from the lack of feeling on his fingers, his hands weren't far off from being uselessly frozen as well! And nothing but trees surrounding him. He could faintly make out a mountainside directly in front of him, but that was about it… No buildings, no nothing… Shit.

Suddenly, a high-pitched noise cut through the ice crystals forming on his ears. It sounded like… a human voice! More like a scream! Julian froze dead in his tracks, and tried to focus as much on the new sound. There it was again! To his left? N-No, to the right! The wind was scattered the sound in all directions, but using the bit of his brain that wasn't touched by the frost, Julian was able to determine where the sound came from. He began moving towards that direction, running underneath some thick canopy where the wind couldn't reach him. He tried to catch his breath, while he tried catching the sound again… There it was! Julian's feet reacted quicker than his mind could cope with as he was already moving towards the sound. After 5 minutes of cautious walking over frozen branches and deceptive moss, he finally arrived at a clearing surrounding by mammoth-like trees. The canopy's of these green giants towered above anything else. But that was not what drew Julian's attention. It was the blonde girl, slumped over against a tree. Blood dripped unto the bark, oozing from her thick woollen coat. Her hand hung limply down her side. Her other hand tried to cease the bleeding, to no avail. Her face was incredibly pale, how much blood did she lose? And why? But that reason quickly presented itself, accompanied by a rumbling sound of hooves on snow.

Suddenly, something came crashing through a set of bushes, completely trampling them in the process. Julian had to rub his eyes with his almost-frozen hands. There stood something… that didn't make any sense!

"I-I did snort something, did I? What kind of drug did I take?!" Julian said to himself, as he recounted and recounted… Yep. Horse with eight legs! Eight! And that was not all! The … thing exuded a weird, purplish haze. Red, angry eyes stared straight at its meek, bloodied prey before it. A massive, rusted blade protruded out of its head. The blade was easily 2 feet long! Several bulbous protrusions pulsed with eerie vibes as the … horse began rearing its head. It brought its bladed protrusion downwards while scraping its broken hooves along the frozen ground. Plumes of snow appeared behind it. Julian felt like he had to do something but… He was not strong… Let alone fit enough to take it on! So he tried thinking of something else but…

"CRACK!" Julian looked at his snow-covered shoes. In the light of one of three moons, he saw the faint outline of a small branch. He rolled with his eyes, gazing back at the purplish thing. But that seemed to be more interested in the new sound than its meek and bloodied prey before it.

"Oh, Fu-!" That was the only thing Julian could usher before being forced to let his body drop to the floor. He barely managed to roll out of the way of the horse. But his left arm got crushed underneath of its hooves, sending a massive jolt of pain throughout his body. He screamed in pain, ramming the wounded bones between his legs to prevent them from moving and causing any further damage. The girl fell unto the ground, gasping for air as the wound on her arms kept oozing slight streams of blood. But the horse didn't care who it attacked. It reared its ugly head, making disturbing noises with its dilapidated face. Its red eyes, glowing like coals, stared straight into Julian's ice cold blue ones. Then, with plumes chasing it, it dashed directly towards the grunting body. Feeling his legs cramping up, Julian could only fall to the side. But the horse managed to ram his right shoulder, making the boy scream as he landed on the ground.

"Partial physics analysed. Allocating memory. Data placed." A mechanical voice welled up from inside Julian's mind. He frowned. Is he getting crazy from the cold? Suddenly, he heard a weird click near his right eye before his sight through that eye went completely red. The boy started panicking, thinking a wound might've spat blood on his eyes and could freeze over. But soon, his vision got restored albeit slightly more red than before. Some letters appeared before his eyes. Julian had to focus really hard to make out what they said.

"S-Speed…? Power…?" Julian repeated the words floating in front of him. Beside these two words were some sort of moving bars. The boy didn't know what they meant, until the horse started to move again. The bar connected with 'Speed' suddenly rose! The faster the horse ran, the higher the bar went. It made Julian think of his computer with its parameters… It looked quite a lot like it! But there wasn't much time to ponder this new information as the horse rammed Julian once again. He screamed in pain as the blade on the horse's forehead cut through his coat, drawing some blood that immediately froze over. Stumbling on his feet, Julian leaned against a tree for cover. The horse reared around again, its eyes glaring straight at the wounded boy with behind him, the wounded blonde girl. The horse made its disturbing noises again before rampaging towards the boy. Julian dropped to the side, causing the horse to bury its blade straight into the old tree behind him. One of its hooves still managed to knock the air out of him, though. While he was painfully gasping for air, the voice returned.

"Additional information acquired. Profile updated. Weak point: marked." That was the only thing it said. Julian's right eye went blood red once again before returning. Now, there was a glowing dot on the back of the eight-legged horse. The purple protrusions on its back pulsed eerily before it charged up for one last, devastating attack. Julian slowly shuffled backwards, looking at the girl beside him. He then felt a sharp thing pointing at his back. The black-haired boy quickly turned around, faced with a massive tree that was covered in thin, sharp thorns. He then looked back at the horse and the sword dangling from his hips. A plan started forming in his mind. His frozen hands clawed at the sword's handle, finally getting it out of its sheath. The horse had enough of this charade as well. It made its disturbing, throatily noises again before charging towards a kneeling Julian. He clasped the sword as tightly as he possibly could between his frozen fists before throwing his entire weight, body and the power of his unfrozen muscles on this one last strike.

The horse managed to scrape his arm once again. Julian screamed out the pain, but remained to kneel. The sword's edge effortlessly cut through the first four legs of the horse, causing it to keel over… straight into the thorny tree behind the boy. Its screams were horrific. A weird black liquid flowed out of the beast as it slowly disintegrated, a dark purple mist swirling around it until it vanished into thin air. . Julian fell on his ass, breathing heavily. His arms were burning: One from the blood still welling up, the other from being broken so heavily. He looked at the unconscious girl just a few feet away from him. Her eyes were closed, strands of her frozen blonde hair covering most of her face. Blood surrounded her.

Julian slowly made his way over to her, grunting with each little movement he made. His left arm screamed in pain while his right arm protested with everything he did. Finally, he arrived at her spot. He lied his index finger in her neck, confirming she still had a pulse albeit a very weak one. Julian himself wasn't feeling well. His entire right arm was soaked with blood, then frozen over again! He grunted before slowly trying to cover the girl up with her jacket. He didn't see any way out of this, but he wanted to still protect this girl… Now that he got a closer look at her face, she looked older than him!

Suddenly, a massive wave of nausea hit Julian square in his mind. He groaned loudly, keeling over with body perpendicular resting on the girl beneath her. His eyes slowly closed as the world and the howling wind slowly faded into nothingness. The only thing he thought he heard were loud voices… yelling something he could not understand and honestly, he didn't care anymore… He was going to die…And that was that… He didn't even feel how his body was lifted, dropped into a wooden carriage and driven off towards who-knows-where. Julian's body didn't react anymore, not even when he got covered with loads of warm, comfy bear and goat-skins. He was truly spent, his body never having to do so much in one go… His mind easily drifted off into unconsciousness as the cart began slowly moving again, led by several burly men and women and a pair of donkey-like creatures.

To wherever and for what…?

When Julian's mind came to, he noticed a comfortable warmth covering his bruised body. Turning on his side


End file.
